Western Animation /
Rio

Edit Locked

1 out of every 8 Americans is afraid of flying. Most of them don't have feathers.

"Flying is not what you think up here, it's what you feel in here."

— Rafael, teaching Blu how to fly.

Advertisement:

Rio is Blue Sky Studios' sixth film with 20th Century Fox, originating from director Carlos Saldanha's inspiration from his native upbringing in Brazil. Released on April 15th, 2011 in the U.S., and opened as the #1 movie in its first week.

Rio provides examples of:

Acrophobic Bird: Literal example in Blu, due to a traumatic incident where he fell out of his nest before he was old enough to fly. It's not that he's afraid of flying, per se... he just knows full well what will happen if he falls from a great height. Well lampshaded later in the jungle.

Blu's ability to open a birdcage from the inside comes as quite a surprise to Jewel, who was trying to break out by force. When Jewel is later captured by Nigel, Blu is briefly seen picking a lock with his claws to get Jewel out of the cage.

The marmosets know how to operate cellphones, send text messages, use digital cameras, etc. Although hilariously, the text message reads, "Ooo! Ooo! Aaa! Aaa! :(|)" Which is still understood quite specifically by its recipient.

Animal Stereotypes: Cockatoos are smart, temperamental, bitey, very easily become neurotic and are loud. They rather routinely outsmart people trying to control them in Australia, where they are often considered a pest. Imagining one as a villain is not much of a stretch at all.

Zig-zagged in that animals of the same species have different languages — the Brazilian birds (like Jewel) can speak both Portuguese and English, while Blu, who was raised in the U.S.A, only speaks English. Other native Brazilian birds like Rafael, Nic and Pedro are never heard in anything but English. During one chase scene, Blu jokes about being bilingual after imitating a dog's bark to scare off a street cat. Which is ironic considering they can all talk to Luiz the bulldog. Notably, Polly Wants a Microphone is averted: despite being raised by a human, and perfectly understanding human talk, Blu cannot talk to humans, only to other animals and a voice activated GPS unit in the sequel. How the latter works is never addressed.

Artistic License  Animal Care: At the end of the movie, Linda bids Blu farewell and lets him fly off into the jungle to be with Jewel. Even if you're not factoring in natural predators and the fact that Blu is a very tame, people-oriented bird, Blu and Jewel are members of a critically endangered species, which would, logically, be high on the list for poachers.

All of the parrots and toucans in the film are only three-toed; they lack the second backward-pointing toe in the zygodactyl foot.

The baby macaws seem conspicuously well-fledged given the (highly exaggerated) head:body ratio. This is probably just to make them cute for all audiences, rather than the Ugly Cute that only an avian enthusiast would love.

At one point, Blu implies that he is capable of "peeing". However, birds (with the exception of some ratites) cannot "pee" as such; liquid and solid wastes are excreted from the cloaca together.

Macaws, Conures, even non-parrot Toucans, they all have strange crest-like head feathers. Made doubly weird because the animators obviously knew how cockatoo crests work. Those head feathers were probably given to be like "hair", so the birds have more distinct appearances.

At one point, Blu is fed hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies. Problem? Chocolate is poisonous to birds.

In the opening scene, while Blu is in a nest inside a den (accurately for parrots), there's a family of yellow parrots who have a cup-shaped nest on a branch.

The blue-and-yellow macaws have their face covered in blue and yellow feathers, when it should be naked with white skin. They also lack black feathers which line the facial skin and cover the chin.

Played for Laughs in one scene: Blu shows off his sweaty "wingpit", at the same time noting that perspiration shouldn't be biologically possible.

Artistic License  Engineering: The parade float hijacked by Linda and Tulio is self propelled (as evident when Linda steps on the gas). In real life, floats that take part in the Sambodromo Parade are pushed by a crew, not self-propelled like other parade floats.

Auto-Tune: Faintly audible on Rafael's one line in the "Real in Rio" finale, indicating it was used for its original purpose — correcting pitch. Evidently, George Lopez can't carry a tune.

Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: Inverted. Early promo material said that the film was rated PG. Fox staff didn't want that, so they made a couple edits to get it down to G. One doesn't see too many G-rated films nowadays.

Subverted when Blu makes his attempt to smash the chain with the boulder, but played straight twice towards the end of the film when he uses the fire extinguisher to "bust his cage open like a soda can", and then also uses it to dispose of Nigel.

Prior to this, the trope is subverted when Blu studies flying and then attempts to do so in the library, but panics at the last moment and ends up as a macaw Christmas tree. And throughout the film, his "thrust, lift, drag, weight" mantra always ends in him having a panic attack at the last moment. Rafael says it perfectly:

Rafael: You think too much!

Babies Ever After: Blu and Jewel are shown with three chicks at the end of the first movie. Said chicks, now a little more grown, are given further characterization in the sequel.

Belly-Scraping Flight: Linda and Tulio drive a Carnivale float onto the runway where the bird smugglers' plane is taking off. The plane gets into the air just in time, but its fuselage still destroys the upper part of the float. Later, Blu and an injured Jewel fall out of the plane over the bay, and Blu manages to get his wings out just in time to pull up — skimming Jewel's back across the water — before they hit the surface.

Beware the Cute Ones: The toucan babies, upon first meeting Blu and Jewel, act so cute and adorable that Jewel teases Blu to "be careful... they might snuggle you to death!" And then a few seconds later one of the babies starts tearing out Blu's feathers, while the other one does the same to Jewel and, well, it snowballs from there. And though he loves his family, even Rafael is not immune to this.

Rafael: No no no, don't turn around; they can sense fear!

Big "NO!": The entire city of Rio lets out a collective one when Nigel's impact with a power transformer blacks out the city right as their soccer team is going for the final point during a major game.

Bilingual Bonus: Blink and you'll miss it, but after Tulio dresses in the macaw costume, he catches a glimpse of himself in a mirror and exclaims "Cyanopsitta spixii!" the scientific name of a Spix Macaw. For ornithologically-versed viewers, this one kind of transcends language. The word "Spix" sticks out quite clearly.

Bookends: The movie begins in the rainforest when Blu was a baby, and ends in the rainforest where Blu is now living with Jewel and their children. Both scenes even have the same samba being sung.

Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: After Blu and Jewel are freed from the chain, and he is angered when she points out it's not her fault he can't fly.

Butt-Monkey: Tiny. In the film, she is brutalized by Nigel into telling him where Blu and Jewel left.

Blu: I'm not gonna let you go! We're chained to each other birds, remember?

Linda: That's my big, brave boy.

Blu: Not cool, man! Not cool!

Blu: I'm not an ostrich! I'm not an ostrich!

"I'll take care of you." (said by Linda to Blu at the beginning of the film, and by Tulio to Jewel at the end)

Call of the Wild Blue Yonder: Pretty much the main plot. Blu is a macaw who has spent his whole life as a pet never learning to fly. When he gets stranded in Rio, he tries to learn how, and eventually does in order to save his true love from falling to her death.

The "missing" poster for Blu is incorrectly phrased (the word "extensão" makes no sense in that context. The correct word would be "ramal").

Captain Ersatz: Blu and Jewel are referred to as "Blue Macaws" instead of Spix's Macaws. Somewhat justified by a common nickname for the Spix's: Little Blue Macaw (which is also the translated Portuguese name of the bird). They do manage to sneak the real name in at one point (see Bilingual Bonus above).

Carnivores Are Mean: Real-life cockatoos are omnivorous, and Nigel has no problem munching on a chicken leg or threatening to eat the smaller of the caged birds. There's no indication whatsoever if the heroic macaws (who are also omnivores in real life) would see canaries and red-crested cardinals as appetizers. However, in this case it's invoked, as Nigel actively uses this to frighten the other birds his owner has captured and is a Card-Carrying Villain.

More of a Chekhov's Affliction with Luiz's uncontrollable drooling, which lubes the cuffs and makes them slip clean (arguably) off of Blu and Jewel.

Chekhov's Song: Lionel Richie's Say You, Say Me.

Chekhov's Skill: As a "companion", Blu picked up an assortment of skills such as exceptional climbing (to get around his flightlessness), the ability to open latches, riding a skateboard, and imitation of a dog's bark. These skills come in handy later on.

In the Russian dub, Blu is called Golubchik (literally "little dove", usually used as an old-timey endearing form of address to a little kid by a much older person), and Jewel is Zhemchuzhinka ("little pearl").

Nigel becomes "Pepillo" in Mexican Spanish, while Jewel is now "Perla".

Establishing Character Moment: Nigel intimidates a tiny bird into removing a bit of chicken lodged in his beak, just so he can try to snap the poor thing's leg off.

Everything Is Better With Monkeys: The pickpocket marmosets. They are nefarious, but still very amusing. Though they at first refuse to work for Nigel, he drops their leader from several hundred feet, only saving him when they agree to work for him.

Evil Poacher: The Big Bad, Marcel; while he's a Punch-Clock Villain who is only in it for the money, he specifically states that he's indifferent even if his clients intend to eat the birds. He's actually more realistic in this respect than most other examples.

Family-Unfriendly Death: Subverted where Nigel appears to have been shredded alive by the airplane's propellers at the end, but it's later revealed that he survived only to have lost all of his feathers in the process.

Fanservice: All those dancers in revealing bird suits are quite eye-catching. Particularly Linda.

Faux Affably Evil: Nigel seems polite in his speech, but it merely adds to his horror factor.

Feather Fingers: Played straight with general wing gestures and Nico's use of his bottle-cap hat, although Blu, Jewel, and Nigel rely primarily on their feet when they actually need to manipulate objects. Subtle hand gestures such as pointing are also subbed in with the birds' feet — Blu's first meeting with Jewel is a prime example of this.

Fire-Forged Friends: Downplayed at first. Blu and Jewel become a lot less hostile towards each other after they escape the smugglers, but it isn't until their dance at the samba club that their conflict completely settles down and Blu and Jewel start being actual friends (who also happen to secretly be attracted to one another).

Fish out of Water: Blu, especially shown the first time he goes back to the jungle he was born in.

Freudian Excuse: Nigel says he's evil because his superstar life-style was taken from him by a prettier bird, making him jealous of all the other "pretty birdies". He takes out this bitterness by helping his owner capture attractive birds and adding to their misery and fear at every opportunity.

Glass Smack and Slide: On seing Blu inside the "Blue Macaw" Library, Tulio rushes toward him but slips on the snow, and ends up with his face comically smashed against the glass. And then he slips down with the expected sound.

Goofy Print Underwear: Marcel is revealed to be wearing blue boxers with yellow ducks on them when he's seen parachuting to safety, his pants pulled down by the henchmen clinging to his legs.

Gory Discretion Shot: The camera cuts away just before Nigel is sucked into the escape plane's propellers.

Green-Eyed Monster: Nigel's Villain Song reveals that part of the reason for his cruelty towards other birds is because he's jealous of their beauty (compared to his brutish appearance). This envy comes from being replaced as the star of a TV show by a far more attractive bird.

Groin Attack: Jewel gives one to the king of the marmosets with the chain holding her and Blu together.

Hikikomori: Technically, Blu. Since he was picked up by Linda, he's almost never been outdoors, and has trouble socializing with other birds.

Helicopter Blender: An old-timey propeller plane in this case. Nigel is is apparently killed in the rotating blades, but is shown to have survived at the end, only shaved of his feathers and humiliated by his former henchmen.

Henpecked Husband: Rafael the toucan, almost literally, by his Keel-Billed Toucan wife. Nonetheless he still does love her, willing to gladly sacrifice Carnaval to spend time with her.

Jewel: I wouldn't expect a pet to understand. Blu: Did you just call me a pet?! For your information, I'm not a pet; I am a companion.

Instant Sedation: That chloroform-soaked rag Nigel used to incapacitate Sylvio the guard must be pretty powerful. Even sniffing the used rag for a second is enough to put both the guard and the cop he called out like a light.

Jerkass Façade: Blu does this to drive away Jewel — since he can't see a flightless future with her in the jungle; it's heavily implied that Blu feels he is not good enough for her. Lampshaded by Rafael who told him to make decision with his heart, not his head.

Kissing Discretion Shot: When Rafi kisses Eva, their beaks are partially hidden and the camera cuts away briefly. (Getting two characters without lips to kiss is an animation challenge even when they don't have toucan beaks.)

Nigel survives flying face first into an electrical transformer box with enough force to knock out power to most of Rio de Janeiro with only a few burnt feathers. In the end, he survives being sucked into an airplane propeller, but loses nearly all his feathers in the process.

Jewel and Blu qualify too — their entire Chained Heat scene is dotted with extremely painful-looking accidents, but aside from some snarking they don't seem to mind.

A Minor Kidroduction: The movie starts out with Blu as a chick getting captured by poachers. He falls off the truck carrying him, and is found by a little Linda.

Monkey Morality Pose: It's easy to miss the marmosets' reaction when Nigel blackmails their leader — an image of the same scene is included during the closing credits.

Mood Whiplash: The entire opening scene, about three times. Seriously.

Musicalis Interruptus: There are more songs in the movie that are interrupted than are not. "Real in Rio", "Mas Que Nada", "Hot Wings (I Wanna Party)", "Fly Love" and "Funky Monkey" are all interrupted, and three of those five are non-comedic examples. The sequel manages to avoid this.

My Beloved Smother: While he never outright states it, Tulio does imply that it was Linda's doting that caused Blu to be so introverted and never learn to fly. In reality, the blame goes to a traumatic incident that happened when he was a chick.

Never Trust a Trailer: The teaser trailer (which turned out to have just sampled a sequence directly from the film) made Rafael out to be a more prominent, important role than he actually is. Also, it made audiences think Blu is physically incapable of flight, when in fact he just needs more confidence.

Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: You know Marcel, if you'd paid Fernando what you promised him and/or taken him in, he might not have told the good guys what you were up to.

No Infantile Amnesia: Blu does remember the song the jungle birds sang, as well as his fall from the nest from when he was little (the latter memory being the reason he doesn't know how to fly).

Not Quite Dead: Nigel is seemingly killed when he ends up being hit by an airplane propeller, but turns out to still be alive at the end, only had most of his feathers sliced off in the process.

Not This One, That One: The smugglers plan to export exotic birds out of the country by hiding them in float for Carnival. The lead poacher Marcel leaves the float-making up to his two underlings, and when the appointed time arrives, he's pleased to spot a very well-made, bird-themed float. However, as it passes, he hears the voices of his underlings calling from the float just behind it, a very shoddy chicken-themed float.

Not Used To Freedom: Blu the parrot is let out of his cage. He greatly misses the cage and doesn't know how to stay safe.

Oh, Crap!: Nigel gets one of these before getting hit by the plane's propeller, after getting jetted out of the plane by a fire extinguisher that Blu attached to his leg.

Only You Can Repopulate My Race: Pretty much played straight. Blu mating with Jewel is the only way to save the species... except for two reasons. 1. Jewel is only interested in freedom and Blu just wants to go home, and 2. The two pretty much despise each other. At first, that is.

Opposites Attract: Blu and Jewel really couldn't be more different than each other if they tried. Blu is a rather cowardly house pet who can't fly, Jewel is a brave Action Girl from the wild who had to be taught to run properly by Blu when they can't fly. And yet they still end up happy mates.

Playing Possum: Jewel and Blu try this to escape the Smugglers early in the film. Blu makes a Large Ham out of himself about it.

Police are Useless: When trying to explain how Blu and Jewel were stolen, Sylvio the security guard demonstrates placing the chloroform-soaked rag over his mouth — and promptly faints. The policeman examines it by sniffing, only to faint too.

Reality Ensues: When Blu (who has been told of a "dating service" with another bird) attempts to kiss Jewel she immediately brushes him off and angrily states that they just met.

Real Men Wear Pink: Several tough guys, like Silvio the guard and Luiz the bulldog, love wearing silly costumes for Carnaval.

"The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Blu — after proving a natural talent at samba dancing throughout the movie — finally loses it and goes off about how much he hates samba. This leads into his Heroic BSoD and causes Nico to completely break down.

Pedro is Red (literally), Nico is Blue (metaphorically). Seen especially clearly when they're both trying to give Blu advice on how to woo Jewel.

Also Jewel is Red (Wild) and Blu is Blue (Domesticated).

Scenery Porn: Rio de Janeiro and the surrounding forests are gorgeous. The forest and the surrounding city, really. The City is surrounded by smaller towns, pastures and farm lands. The forest seen in the movie is the Tijuca National Park, a urban park (the biggest urban park in the world) in the middle of the city.

To Die Hard of all things. Twice, even: "Yippie-ki-yay, monkey-man!" Nigel apparently was the star performer in Fly Hard.

Nico throws his bottle cap as if it was a mighty shield. It even comes back to his wingtip after stunning a monkey.

After interrogating it for Blu and Jewel's destination, Nigel hurls a small, round bird into a pile of boxes and crates. Keep in mind the crossover release of Angry Birds Rio.

Upon entering the bird clinic, a small round red bird with heavily dark eyes — almost perfect for the iconic main bird of Angry Birds — flies across the screen, followed shortly by three smaller round blue birds all together.

Another one to the Paulie Shore movie In the Army Now, with Blu's "spider on my back" being uncannily similar to the scorpion scene, except in the jungle and done by birds with a different arachnid.

When Tulio attempts to ride the motorcycle and fails, take a look just underneath the graffiti that says "Re!" You'll see the safe house emblem from Left 4 Dead.

After nearly getting killed for the twelve-millionth time in the past ten minutes, Jewel saying that "I'm gonna chew through my own leg soon if this [chain] doesn't come off" brings to mind 127 Hours.

When Marcel tells his goons to feed Nigel, they decide by playing Rock, Paper, Scissors, saying: "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" Then later on when deciding who should take the last parachute, the goons go "Rock, paper, scissors..." then Marcel cuts in saying: "Chute!" as he gets it for himself.

Marcel is infuriated by his goons' stupidity and remarks that Nigel the cockatoo is ten times more intelligent than both of them combined. Nothing we see contradicts this assumption.

Nigel feels this way about the marmosets after the birds beat the tar out of them. So he decides to do it himself.

Swiss Cheese Security: In real life, Carnival is such as big event you can't bypass security to the sambadrome bleachers, much less the street of the parade. And yet the villains' badly done parade car is able to run behind the real ones: the protagonists smuggling in at least had the excuse of them being able to blend with real dancers due to the costumes).

Tempting Fate: When Linda and Blu first arrive in Rio and see everyone dressed up in flashy costumes for Carnaval, Tulio tells her "Come tomorrow night, everyone will be dressed like that." Linda laughs and says "Not me!"

Together in Death: Blu jumping out of the plane after Jewel invokes a touch of this. He doesn't appear to have any kind of plan in mind for rescuing her, and his last-minute flying abilities take them both by surprise.

Linda, who goes from a timid bookstore owner to a woman willing to steal a Carnaval float and drive it into an oncoming plane, and Tulio, who actively aids Linda in her exploits.

Toothy Bird: Averted. The birds are perfectly expressive with their beaks. Somewhat Lampshaded: Blu still make a point of brushing his beak. It is an important ritual for his human companion, so he does it too.

Trail of Bread Crumbs: Fernando leaves a trail of pieces of cloth from Marcel's chicken float for Linda and Tulio to follow.

Triumphant Reprise: "Real in Rio", while an upbeat song about life, love and fun, is brutallycut short when the birds are taken by the smugglers. "Real in Rio (Reprise)" is another upbeat song about life, love and fun, and this time it comes with a happy ending.

Linda is unable to visit home on the grounds that she'd have no one to take care of Blu, and the general impression we're left with is that her life completely and utterly revolves around him. It cannot be stressed enough how much Truth in Television this invokes.

Tsundere: Jewel seems this way at first, but it turns out to be her reaction to a stressful situation — not her normal personality.

Tuft of Head Fur: both macaws and toucans are designed with a crest of feathers on their head that varies in size and shape, to give the individual characters more distinct appearances. Taken to the extreme with Roberto in the sequel, whose crest makes him look like a Long-Haired Pretty Boy with Non-Mammalian Hair.

Villainous Breakdown: It's what led Nigel to being a villain in the first place. After losing his star status to a "pretty parakeet", he went bad to the point that he tortures other birds For the Evulz.

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy